Eliminating distraction is a constant concern for the at-home worker. My PS3 is around three feet from my workstation, and the TV is just another foot beyond that. When I want to sit down and do some writing, I’ll try anything to make sure my attention stays focused where it should.

That includes OmmWriter, a new writing application for the Mac (s aapl). It promises a very unique experience, one that aims to reduce distraction and enable you to maintain your focus. Part of that strategy is full-screen text editing, which has been done before, but that’s only the beginning of OmmWriter’s story.

The other part of the story? A snow-covered field, white-out conditions, and a couple of lonely looking trees. And a soundtrack of calming, ambient instrumental music. I was watching “Glee” when I tried the app out for the first time, so I initially thought a musical number was starting up, but then I realized that the sounds were coming from my computer speakers. I can honestly say it’s the first time a word processor has played me music.

When you first boot up OmmWriter, it displays a splash screen that lets you know that it’s best to experience the program using headphones for a more immersive effect. I dutifully followed the instructions using my Apple in-ear headphones, and sure enough, I felt more like I was lost in a world of composition.

If you’re not keen on the default backdrop and music, you can change both. Two other backdrops are available, including a fabric pattern, and a completely white one. Both are preferable to the field image in my opinion, since they have no real focal point to distract the eye. There are also seven different background soundtracks to choose from. OmmWriter remembers your choice, too, so you won’t have to reconfigure your work space with every boot.

I know what you’re thinking. OmmWriter sounds weird. And it is, but it’s also different. Unique, in fact. It’s rare to come across a word processor at this stage that can make the same claim. I really recommend giving it a shot, even if you’re skeptical after reading this. You may just find it’s exactly what you need to stay on track and write something great.

OmmWriter is currently available as a free beta, though you’ll have to sign up at the site with your email address to get the download link.

Has OmmWriter helped improve your focus?

Basic PC: Requirements: No previous experience necessary.

Monday, January 4th

Saturday, January 9th

Basic Internet: Requirements: Experience using a PC and a mouse.

Monday, January 11th

Saturday, January 23rd

Keyboarding: Requirements: No previous experience necessary.

Tuesday, January 5th

Saturday, January 16th

Word Processing with Open Office Part I: Requirements: Experience using a PC and a mouse.

Tuesday, January 12th

Saturday, January 30th

Word Processing with Open Office Part II: Requirements: Word Processing with Open Office Part I

Tuesday, January 19th

Presentations with Open Office: Requirements: Experience using a PC and a mouse.

Monday, January 25th

Spreadsheets with Open Office: Requirements: Experience using a PC and a mouse.

Tuesday, January 26th

All classes are held in the Regional Library Computer Center (RLCC) of the Central (downtown) Library. All class times are 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Space is limited. Registration will be handled on a first-come, first served basis. If you register for a class and cannot attend, please call the Center as soon as possible. No one will be admitted after 10 minutes past the time of class is scheduled to start. These classes are provided by the Jefferson County Library Cooperative.

To register for a class, please call 205-226-3799 or 205-226-3798 or visit your local library and fill out a registration form.

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• What should the Library of Birmingham be and do? (steflewandowski.com)

So today is day two of WordCamp. This was my first one and I have to say it was definitely a good time. I learned a lot, got to interact with many WordPress “personalities”, and showed off AtD a bit.

I gave two presentations. At yesterday’s 2:30pm session I showed After the Deadline and its features to a packed room. To those of you who made it as far as this blog, good to see you, I hope you stick around.

I also gave a talk at 10pm showing how to add After the Deadline to a web application using jQuery. Those present seemed like a strong jQuery crowd so this was a positive thing. I hope some of you try it out. For those who couldn’t make it (but wanted to) here is the presentation:

As a side note: I just noticed AtD corrects wordcamp to WordCamp. I’m on the ball for you guys

I have just lost 3 paragraphs worth of original writing while working on the part II of my epic trilogy of an article about Don Quixote.  Let us just say that it involved the Back button on my Web browser and the quick thinking and automatically updating nature of WordPress’s awesome awesome AWESOME user interface…

Grr…  My statement is not paid for by WordPress…

Thanks to one of Merrilee’s posts, I was introduced to Liquid Story Binder XE and have since been playing with it all day. This program is dangerously fun; I think I cackled out loud when I saw the multimedia storyboard. Beyond that, it offers a mixture of options for flexible, do-it-yourself organization that’s perfect for a scatterbrain like me. A big thank you to Merrilee!

I mentioned in yesterday’s post how Gemini City needed a subplot. After some poking and plotting, I’ve come up with one. With the main thrust of the story about Gavin struggling with demonic possession and seeking revenge against those responsible for his lover’s death, the subplot concerns the demons themselves — called taal — and their main organization in Gemini City, the Boffeybrutes. Quick note 1: although taal can and do possess humans as a last ditch survival method, they are born with their own physical bodies and are the most powerful skinshifters. Quick note 2: Necroworkers specialize in harvesting skinshifter flesh for human use and are thus the biggest enemies of all skinshifters.

ANYWAY, Jyre has taken over as leader of the Boffeybrutes along with his sister, Felia. Though they work out of North Gemini, they are interested in expanding their influence throughout the entire city — even the southern sections dominated by humans. There are plenty of hurdles in their way — various skinshifter wolf packs have split up the underbelly of South Gemini like so many pieces of a pie (think of the Mafia and New York City) and are not keen on losing their territories. The many necroworkers that live and own businesses will also fight against the Brutes, fearing for their survival if the demons should take control.

How does this tie in to Gavin’s storyline? Since he has an intimate knowledge of South Gemini, Jyre and Felia are interested in picking his brain for information, even more so when he reveals the wolves are beginning to work with necroworkers. He agrees to help them if they lend muscle and money in his pursuit for revenge. Oh, and get that damn demon out of his body.

So…what think ye? Does this feel like a good fit? Does it even make sense? Is “Boffeybrute” too silly a name for a demon army? (I’m ridiculously attached to it for reasons even I can’t name, but if enough readers think it needs to go, it shall go.)

I guess the typewriter is probably one of the things that has changed the most in my own lifetime, so much in fact that its primeval state seems to have disappeared completely.

My mother worked as a secretary for many years, so of course she could touch-type. When my parents started up their own business, she got out the old typewriter, dusted it off and used it to start on the paperwork. It was an ancient thing, probably dating back to the 60’s if not earlier. The keys would jam all the time, and the rhythmic thud-click of my mother’s typing was interrupted every few strokes by pauses and cursing. Mild cursing, of course. After a while, she gave in and got a more recent model, although still second-hand, it was much better. And it was turquoise. It was the kind of thing that looked retro the moment it was bought. But at least the keys didn’t stick. At first.

If you have never used a typewriter, and if you’re under 30 the chances are you haven’t, it was quite a complicated thing to do. First you had to load a single sheet of paper, roll it in to place then, as you typed, you had to push the carriage return lever when you got to the edge of the paper or it would just keep on typing. The ink was on a ribbon that you had to change every now and again, and straighten or untangle regularly. And of course, you couldn’t delete anything. Some of the more advance models had a backspace function so you could move back a space at a time and type an x over the offending letter. It was a messy business.

A couple of years later, after a lot more mild cursing, my parents invested in an electric typewriter. This was a whole new beast. Not only did it have the amazing black AND red ribbon (with a special function key to type in red) but this one had a tippex ribbon too, which meant that you could actually erase text as you went. You also no longer needed to stab at the keys, as a gentle tap was quite enough to trigger the electrically assisted movement. Not that my mother ever got the hang of that, in fact it took many more years and several computer keyboards to get rid of her punchy typing style.

In the end, even the fancy electric typewriter ended up being replaced by a computer. I therefore never got to visit the realm of the rather strange hybrids that were word processors. These looked like typewriters, except that they had small screens into which you would type a sentence or two, and then you could make corrections before validating and printing that chunk of text onto the page. The more sophisticated ones could even load several sheets of paper at a time and produce justified text. Funky!

So in memoriam of the old clunky tip tip tippy typwriters, I would like to dedicate this fabulous song:

WEDNESDAY 14^th OCTOBER

I’m not sure whether to be delighted or slightly embarrassed – I now have over 4000 ‘friends’ on Facebook. I also, somehow, have managed to gather over 2500 people in the DJ Wanker Appreciation Society.

There was no popping of a champagne cork. It’s all very vacuous stuff really although quite nice that people have taken the effort to add me or accept me.

I don’t feel important in any way – and neither should I – as it’s just internet nonsense.

*****

How many of these 4000 would consider me enough of a friend to invite me round for Christmas Dinner? I would say probably 10.

How many of these would come to my funeral and be sad I’ve passed on? Possibly 20.

That’s how you gauge your proper friends.

*****

Other news from Facebook… I was this week invited to join a group called:’We need a cash machine in Woodside.’ I didn’t join on the grounds that Woodside needs a lot more important things than a cash machine to improve it.

Like a better quality of houses and people.

*****

Okay, I’m being rude about the place again. No serious offence intended. It’s just an easy target and I’m rarely going to pass up the opportunity of shooting fish in a barrel.

There’s another group on Facebook called: ‘I hate Woodside, Telford.’ On the wall, Maria Foster wrote: “It’s a shit hole and needs a big bomb.” Jasmin Turner said: “I live on Woodside and it’s a shit place to live.” Warren Teece, the group creator, added: “It’s full of gossiping, backstabbing idiots who have nothing better to do than slag each other off.”

*****

Five other random groups I’ve spotted on Facebook this week:

* Find my mum a husband

* If  one million join this, I’ll get a tattoo of the Facebook logo

* Fuck this, I’m moving to Fraggle Rock

* The Bollocks Bar (Magalluf)

And my favourite of the lot, aimed at people who can’t dress themselves properly…

* Pull your fucking trousers up

*****

There would also appear to be a million groups on Facebook aiming their vitriol at two lads with crazy hair from the X Factor. Now I couldn’t care less about the programme, aside from maybe dipping in occasionally to see Simon Cowell be rude / refreshingly honest to people.

If these Irish twins are that hated, why did they get voted through to next week? It’s evil people like me voting to keep them in! I didn’t actually vote as I can find better uses for my money.

Other things I noticed from the show on Sunday:

1. Alexandra Burke, last year’s X Factor winner, could only MIME her performance.

2. Robbie Williams is not the entertainer he thinks he is… although I quite like his new single.

3. Louis Walsh didn’t turn up to judge – preferring to attend some impromptu Boyzone reunion in Majorca.

*****

I mentioned last week that I would be spinning the tunes on a Wednesday night at Bar Vox in Telford but that turned out to be just a one-off. You can still find me in the main room at Pussycats every Friday and Saturday – head to the gallery at  www.djwanker.com for my latest photos.

*****

Daniel Lee Benton wrote this regarding the blog last week: “I’m a fan of the politics update. I can’t say I agree with your take on Never Mind The Buzzcocks… but I’m happy its back on.”

And I’d also like to thank the fragrant, loveable flooze (and top Telford totty) Gemma Mansell who, on her Facebook page, has “Geoff’s Blog” written among her favourite quotations!

*****

I received some very sad news last weekend that Wayne Springer had died. He was just 44. Wayne was heavily involved in the club and bar scene in Leicester and I never met anyone who had a bad word to say about him. He was a gentle giant.

When I got my first full nightclub residency in Leicester in the late 1990s, the owner of the place used to terrify me but Wayne was the manager and always put me at ease. I worked with him on and off until about four years ago and he was always exactly the same – calm, reasoned, polite and unruffled.

My best mate Phil heard the news first and we chatted on the phone about how we both had such huge respect for this guy. Rest in Peace, big man.

*****

Lifted from an interview with Dougie from McFly in Heat magazine:

What was the last lie you told?

“I farted in bed and Frankie (from The Saturdays, his girlfriend) asked me if I had. I said it wasn’t me, it must be you.”

Quality. Why don’t women find farting as funny as men do?

*****

Stolen from the letters page of Viz magazine:

“So Sting is able to shag his wife for five hours without going off. I know how he feels. My wife is no oil painting either.”

*****

I don’t understand why a man would ever have a sex change. Yes, you could put up with having breast implants. Yes, you could put up with the pain of having your manhood chopped off and a ‘ladygarden’ dug in. But the really awful bit must be where they remove half the brain cells…

*****

I have invested in a sleek, new desktop PC at home and it’s bloody quick! I don’t know much about computers but it’s from the Dell Inspiron range and has… quad core processor (2.5ghz, 4mb cache), 640gb SATA hard drive… these are just words to me but Tom, my technical advisor in Leicester, reckons it’s money well spent.

Technology has moved on rather quickly since I was a kid. I had a ZX Spectrum+ as my first computer when I was about 13. This is what it looked like…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ZX_Spectrum%2B.jpg

Then we had an Amstrad word processor which I used to start writing my book in 1997. It was basic and looked like this…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Locoscript.png

*****

And finally… I couldn’t resist.

For Sale: One stool and microphone. In good condition. £95. Please contact Ronan or Keith.

Cheers for now,

Geoff / DJ Wanker

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Just about everyone seems to have wordpad, which is a basic word processor at best.
It does it’s job and i think does it well over all. But there are times when we all need more features when using a word processor then wordpad or some others can offer.

The good news is, there is a free word processor that can offer all what wordpad does, and much much more.
To find out all the benefits this neat processor can do, click here to visit download.com and read all there is to know about this program.

OpenOffice has a wonderful aray of features that you just may be looking for.
Better yet, OpenOffice is totally free.

L’evoluzione del modesto Word Pad di Windows è Jarte. Si tratta di un favoloso word processor alternativo ai più blasonati applicativi della concorrenza, che permette di modificare files in formato Word (DOC), senza che risulti installato sul pc. Lo si può anche inserire in una pen-drive ed averlo sempre a portata di mano.

ScreenSteps Desktop 2.6.1 build 18 (2009-07-10) Blue Mango Learning Systems (미국)

소프트웨어 사용설명서 작성 전용 프로그램. 연속적인 이미지에 설명을 붙이는 문서 업무에 특화되어 있다. 스크린 캡처 기능도 포함되어 있다.

이미지가 많아서 매뉴얼 작성에 어려움을 겪어본 사람이라면 돈이 아깝지 않을 프로그램.

ทุกคนที่เกี่ยวข้องกับการใช้คอมพิวเตอร์เพื่อผลิตงานเอกสาร โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งนิสิตที่กำลังเขียนวิทยานิพนธ์ ควรจะอ่านบทความต่อไปนี้

http://thep.blogspot.com/2009/09/academic-document-format.html

ซึ่งให้รายละเอียดเกี่ยวกับการผลิตงานเอกสารได้ดีมากๆ

iText Express 3.2.1 (2009-06-21) iText Express 3.2.1E (2009-07-21) Michiaki Yamashita

간단한 무료 워드 프로세서. 일본에서 만든 것 답게 세로 쓰기를 지원하고, 언어 인코딩을 설정할 수 있다.

문서 배경을 이용해 원고지 모양을 낼 수 있다. 일어판 サンプル文書에 각종 원고지 서식이 있다. 이외에도 일본어 사용에 편리한 각종 기능이 포함되어 있다.

RTFD, DOC, HTML 파일을 읽을 수 있고, DOC, ODT, DOCX, RTF 등으로 내보내기 할 수 있다.

영어판에 한국어 리소스도 들어있다. (Jeremy Yun 번역) 기능을 추가한 iText Pro ‘09는 2730 JPY.

EndNote X3 for Windows is compatible with OpenOffice.org Writer which is an open source word processor. How to cite while you write with OpenOffice.org Writer? EndNote X3 Help provides step-by-step instructions as below:

To Cite While You Write with OpenOffice.org Writer:

• Open the EndNote library or libraries that contain the references you wish to cite.
• Start OpenOffice.org Writer and open the paper you are writing.
• When you are ready to cite a source, position the cursor in the text where you would like to put the citation.
• In OpenOffice.org Writer, go to the EndNote menu and select Find Citation(s).  An EndNote Find Citations dialog appears, which shows the previous search results.

Note: If this is the first time you have used the Find Citations dialog, it may be completely blank because there are no previous search results to display.

• In the Find box, enter identifying text for EndNote to locate the appropriate reference. This could be an author’s last name, a year, a keyword, or any other combination of terms found in the reference.
• Click Search and EndNote compares the identifying text to your EndNote references and then lists the matching reference(s).
• Identify, highlight, and Insert the appropriate reference(s).
• Go back to step 3 to insert the next citation, and continue citing references this way.

Note: Each time you insert a citation it is instantly formatted, and a bibliography is updated at the end of your document. When you are done inserting citations, your document is done!

• If your citations are not automatically formatted, and a bibliography is not updated each time you insert a citation, go to the EndNote menu and select Format Bibliography.       A Format Bibliography dialog appears, where you can change, or simply verify, the style and layout of the bibliography. (You can Format Bibliography at any time in order to change the style or layout of your citations and bibliography.)

Note: The dialog lists the styles that are currently selected as your “favorites” in the Style Manager. If you need to choose a style that is not in the list, click Browse to locate it.

• Click OK. EndNote scans your paper and, using the selected style, formats any temporary citations, reformats formatted citations, and appends a bibliography to the end of your paper.    Your paper is now ready for publication!

Pagehand 1.0.6 (2009-08-31) Ross Carter | Cocomot LLC

간단한 워드 프로세서. 개인적으로 요즘은 이렇게 속성이 옆에 표시되는 인터페이스가 편하게 느껴진다. (이런 인터페이스를 가진 다른 제품으로는 Symphony가 있다.) 한눈에 속성을 파악할 수 있고, 다른 창에서 정보를 보여주는 경우보다 복잡하지 않기 때문이다.

TUAW에서 디자이너 Ross Carter가 제품을 직접 설명하는 동영상을 올렸다:

TUAW: WWDC Live: Ross Carter and Pagehand, typography-aware word processor

간단한 인터페이스와는 달리 화면 출력에 은근히 편리한 기능을 많이 구현했다. 위 동영상에도 나오는 대문자로 소문자를 쓰는 기능(Small caps)이나, 문자 정렬의 정확성 등이 있다.

무엇보다 큰 특징은 PDF로 저장을 할 뿐만 아니라 직접 편집 가능하다는 것. Mac OS X 개발 초기에 스티브 잡스가 보여줬지만 그 뒤에 실제 Mac OS X 발표시에는 없었던 PDF 편집 기능이 이 프로그램으로 구현되는 것이 아닌가 하는 생각이 든다. 현재는 삽입 이미지 처리 기능이 좀 부족하다.

다른 프로그램으로 작업한 PDF 파일을 편집할 수는 없다. PDF 포멧 전체를 커버하는 에디터를 구현하기란 쉬운 일이 아니므로 이해가 간다. 그럼에도 PDF를 직접 편집한다는 것은 큰 장점이라고 할 수 있겠다.

Import 메뉴는 따로 없지만, DOC, DOCX, ODT/OTT, SXW/STW, HTML, Web Archive, RTF 등을 열 수 있고, Export 메뉴로 RTF, RTFD, DOC, DOCX, ODT, Web Archive 등으로 내보내기 할 수 있다.

I pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory and also ask their intercession in all my needs.  Since I left school, I have progressed through various technologies, a manual typewriter, an electric typewriter, a Word Processor  (a machine that looks and functions like an electronic typewriter, but is also able to store text data onto a floppy disk and print the data out), then I went onto computers which our family has upgraded from time to time.

The Word Processor was functional until a few years ago and then the disk drive stopped working, effectively reducing the machine to an electronic typewriter. I have a lot of files stored on floppy disks for the Word Processor, which I want to have a look at and make an assessment of.

I prayed for a solution and a lady we know said that her husband had once repaired these machines for a living.  He would have done that for us, but the replacement parts are simply not available and no one sells this equipment anymore. I was told by another mechanic, that even if the parts were available that it would be very costly to repair the Word Processor, (out of all portion to its worth).  In short the situation was hopeless.  I put the broken Word Processor into the shed for storage, in case something could be done in the future and continued to pray.

I prayed for the Holy Souls a few days ago and my brother telephoned me.  He had just purchased a house for his family.  The previous owners of the house left a few things in the shed that my brother and his family were allowed to have.

My brother said that there was “an electric typewriter” in the shed and asked me if I want to have it.  I started asking my brother questions about the ‘typewriter’.  It turned out to be an upgraded model of my word processor. It is even the same brand. This is important because the disks were formatted for this particular brand alone and would be incompatible with other brands of Word Processor.   It is in excellent condition and can read the files on the floppy disks. It had one part missing (a plastic knob to turn the carriage) and I took that part from my own Word Processor and put it on the one that my brother gave me. It prints well.

Very few people would even require such a piece of equipment and they are almost impossible to obtain. My brother had no idea that I had been praying for exactly this.  He showed it to his wife and ask her what he should do with this ‘typewriter’.  She told him to throw it out!  Then he thought of me and phoned.  It is strange that he did because he is well aware of the technology that I have at my disposal and that would have made anyone else think that I had absolutely no need for this piece of equipment. My sister-in-law was astounded when I came to try it out with a box of disks to test the equipment. She had no idea that it was not just a typewriter. The intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory for their benefactors is amazing.

Read more accounts about the powerful intercession of the Holy Souls in Purgatory and ways to help them